The gas grill is a well-known home appliance. A gas grill typically includes an enclosure having a base portion mounted on a support frame. A cooking grate for supporting food to be cooked is mounted near the top of the base portion. Burner elements are mounted beneath the grate. A clamshell cover is hinged along the back edge of the base portion and designed to mate with the base portion, so that the cover can be lowered to define and enclose a cooking space and lifted to allow access to food cooking on the grate.
If the grill uses LP gas for fuel, a support frame fixed to the grill holds the common LP (propane) gas tank. The support frame has a bracket for holding the gas tank in a fixed position and that allows detaching an empty tank from and attaching a fill replacement to a gas supply hose. Grills having gas tanks typically include wheels to allow for easily moving the grill about. Other types of gas grills have a permanent natural gas connection for fuel, and this invention can be used in them also.
Regardless of the type of fuel source, these grills include a pressure regulator immediately connected to the gas supply hose to receive fuel from the fuel source. The pressure regulator reduces the fuel source pressure to a level suitable for grill operation. A set of manually operated valves receives fuel from the regulator. The manually operated valves provide for adjusting cooking temperature by controlling flow rate of fuel to the burner elements from the regulator. Usually, an igniter is provided to start the initial flame. All this is of course well known to most grill users.
Gas grills are primarily used for cooking food such as meats and vegetables. The gas grill is less well suited however, to cook or bake other types of foods such as breads, pizza, casseroles, and pastries because temperature control is imprecise. Most grills have a thermometer so one can get a rough idea of the cooking space temperature. But many things affect cooking space temperature. Of course, the cook will open the cover occasionally to check on the progress of the cooking process. Wind and precipitation can affect the cooking space temperature.
At the present time, the chef manually adjusts the fuel valves to approximate settings to create the temperature needed for the particular food to be cooked. If conscientious, she or he will periodically check the grill thermometer and further adjust the fuel valves to more closely hold the desired temperature setting. This is a bother, and provides poor temperature control as well. Not only that, but every time the top is opened to check on the food or to turn it, the enclosure temperature falls dramatically. Substantial time may pass before the cooking space temperature returns to the desired level.
This state of affairs has limited the usage of gas grills and has resulted on occasion in undesirable cooking results when using gas grills.